EFME 81

“Where are you going? Should I take you there?”

“I’m fine.”

At Jaehee’s question, Sunyul shook his head. But Jaehee did not back down so easily.

“It’s because I want to give you a ride. I’ll just take you to the front of the research institute.”

“Oh, then me too!”

Unable to be so heartless as to refuse up to that point, Sunyul had no choice but to nod.

In the end, Sunyul got into a taxi while being seen off by the two of them. Thanks to wearing a disguise item beforehand, the taxi driver did not recognize Sunyul.

His destination was TR Department Store. Before entering the department store, Sunyul took a deep breath. He had been there once before, but at that time, it was closer to looking at items brought by a personal shopper rather than browsing the department store.

Sunyul entered the department store with a sense of grim determination. Even though it was a weekday afternoon, there were quite a few people in the department store.

According to what Sunyul had studied in advance, the food section was on the B1 floor. Sunyul first went to the basement and bought some chocolates. Seeing the beautifully wrapped chocolates warmed his heart.

The next place he headed to was the floor that sold hunter items. Sunyul chose an item meticulously. After examining everything one by one, from the design to the effects, he barely managed to pick one item.

He had chosen an item, but there was a problem. The item was too expensive.

Actually, it was on the cheaper side compared to other items. The problem was that Sunyul had too little money. But he couldn’t buy an item that was too cheap, either.

As Sunyul wandered around the same floor several times, agonizing, a brilliant idea flashed in his mind.

‘Inventory.’

Countless items accumulated by the past Lim Sunyul were neatly stored in the inventory.

The inside of the inventory was a jumble. The past Lim Sunyul must have been the type who hardly ever tidied up. Not that the current Sunyul was talented at organizing either.

Sunyul sat on a bench set up on one side of the department store, turned on his smartphone, and connected to Hunternet. Hunternet was the largest hunter community in the country, where all sorts of information was gathered.

Dakyung had advised him to never access the free-for-all board and had explained Hunternet in detail. That place was a chaos where order and the abyss coexisted, or something like that…

Sunyul, who had only signed up and never used Hunternet before due to lack of interest, was now about to make active use of it.

Although it was said that dungeon items were sold at market price anyway, there was still a generally established price range. And what served as the standard for that was Hunternet’s market price chart.

Sunyul checked the items in his inventory in order from the top and searched for their market prices.

As a result, he came to the calculation that selling about three blue-striped ores would be enough to cover the cost.

Satisfied, Sunyul turned off Hunternet. And then, he confidently took out three blue-striped ores.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

With a heavy sound, three ores, each the size of a person, appeared in the middle of the department store.

A pale-faced Sunyul hurriedly put the ores away, but it seemed too late. All eyes were focused on him, and the strange pattern of the striped ores was clearly imprinted on the floor.

Sunyul couldn’t even think of running away. Running away here was too irresponsible an act.

“Excuse me, sir. I’ll need a moment of your time.”

In the end, security came and took away the frozen Sunyul. Sunyul was dragged away.

“You’re even wearing a disguise item.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hide intentionally…”

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to take off the item.”

Sunyul tried to explain, but because he was wearing a disguise item, the department store seemed to have already branded him as something akin to a troublemaking terrorist. Sunyul wanted to cry.

“I’ll compensate for the damages. I’m sorry.”

“Sir, if you keep this up, we will have no choice but to call the police.”

In the end, Sunyul reluctantly took off the item. The moment he took off the item, people’s eyes widened.

“I-Is that Lim Sunyul?”

“Gasp.”

“What, is it really him?!”

A commotion erupted. Watching the commotion, Sunyul felt the world in front of him grow even darker.

Will there be internet articles now about Lim Sunyul the troublemaker? Will people tell others to press ‘like’ if they want Lim Sunyul banned from the department store, and it’ll get thirty thousand ‘likes’?

“I-I’m sorry. Please wait a moment.”

The people who, just a moment ago, thought of Sunyul as a troublemaking terrorist changed their minds, thinking there must be some circumstances. Thanks to that, their attitude also did a 180-degree turn, but Sunyul failed to notice.

As Sunyul sat there feeling dejected, the door over on that side burst open.

“Sunyul!”

Someone called Sunyul very cheerfully. At the familiar voice, Sunyul raised his head. A appearance that strongly resembled Muyoung. It was Muyoung’s older sister, Kwon Siyoung.

“Huh? Oh, hello.”

Siyoung approached with a wide smile and lightly slapped Sunyul’s shoulder so it wouldn’t hurt.

“What’s this? Is this fate? I’m here, and you just happen to cause trouble right here.”

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know those ores were so big.”

“No, it’s fine for someone with no memories not to know. It’s okay. It’s not a big deal, but the staff caused a scene for no reason, so you must have been surprised, right?”

“It left marks…”

“Hey, for something like that, we can just call a restorationist. It’ll be gone in a few minutes.”

Siyoung waved her hand, telling him not to worry about it. Then she got up from her seat, telling him to follow. Sunyul followed Siyoung in a daze.

The place Siyoung headed to was the room where she herself had been shopping just a moment before. Sitting down comfortably, Siyoung asked Sunyul with a look of great interest.

“By the way, why did you take out that huge rock?”

“…I was short on money. I was planning to exchange it, but I didn’t know it was so big.”

“Aha. What are you buying? Want your noona to buy it for you?”

Sunyul shook his head at Siyoung’s words.

“It’s something I have to buy. It’s okay.”

“Aha. Right. I seeee.”

Siyoung, for some reason so amused, curved her eyes into circles and giggled.

“Should your noona help you exchange it? Even if you have no memories, your inventory should still be the same. Huh? Don’t you have a lot of items besides that one?”

“Yes. I think there are quite a lot.”

“Okay, let’s compare them and make an exchange. Here, tell me what you have.”

“Should I list everything? It seems like there’s a ton.”

“We can just stop when something suitable comes up as you list them from the top.”

Sunyul, along with Siyoung and her bodyguard who was a hunter, checked the inventory list and chose an item to sell. Thanks to them, he was able to choose a small and safe item to exchange.

“But you really need to organize your inventory.”

Sunyul gave an awkward laugh. Sunyul’s inventory was a disorganized mix of equipment, potions, and miscellaneous items.

If you opened the inventory and thought of the item you wanted, it would appear, so it wasn’t a problem to use even if it was a mess, but it was better to organize it since he didn’t know what was inside.

“…I’ll do it later.”

“You don’t look like the type, but you’re a complete mess.”

Sunyul felt embarrassed and just laughed.

Thanks to Siyoung’s help, he was able to exchange the item safely and even got a discount, allowing him to buy the item cheaply.

⊹₊｡ꕤ˚₊⊹

February 14th, Valentine’s Day.

It seemed to be a day of some excitement with chocolate, but it was a day largely unrelated to Sunyul. Thanks to Muyoung’s ridiculous announcement that chocolate was forbidden.

It didn’t matter since he didn’t want to receive chocolate anyway.

Still, it wasn’t a day completely unrelated to Sunyul. Because the announcement prohibited receiving, not giving.

Sunyul checked that it was nearing 12 o’clock and stealthily headed to Muyoung’s room. Knock knock, he knocked on the door, and Muyoung came out of the room.

“Guild Master, this is a Valentine’s Day gift.”

Muyoung looked at the small box held out in front of him. He didn’t like chocolate, so he didn’t accept any. He thought Sunyul knew about this announcement and hadn’t prepared anything.

To think he would give it to him just before the day was almost over.

Since Sunyul had prepared it, he couldn’t refuse it. Muyoung let out a laugh as if he couldn’t help it and accepted the chocolate.

“Open it.”

Inside were five pieces of chocolate. A relief there weren’t many. In front of Sunyul, who was sending him a look of anticipation, Muyoung picked up a piece of chocolate and ate it. It must have been dark chocolate, as it was moderately bittersweet.

“It’s good.”

Sunyul’s face brightened up. Since he was this happy, Muyoung couldn’t say he disliked it.

“You have one too.”

It was right when Muyoung was about to get rid of another piece by putting it in Sunyul’s mouth.

Beep-beep-beep-beep, a small alarm sound rang.

“It’s twelve o’clock now.”

Sunyul, as if making a declaration, took out his smartphone and turned off the alarm. Then, he took out a box from the small shopping bag he had been holding in one hand, which had been bothering him a little.

“Happy birthday, Guild Master!”

February 15th.

Immediately following the lovers’ anniversary, it was Muyoung’s birthday.